A surprisingly tricky question!
There has never been a doubt in either Mick’s mind or mine that backpacking tents are female, hence we have Rita, Susie, Vera and Connie.
When we bought a motorhome, I declared that, being so much bigger and beefier than a tent, he was clearly a boy, hence he was called Colin and his successor is Bertie.
Neither of us has ever named a car, however, in my mind cars are female. Erica is currently a car, but will be becoming a campervan and if motorhomes are male then surely campervans are too. Or are they? I could be persuaded either way.
That leaves Eric(a) a state of limbo, not knowing whether it’s the final letter or the brackets that will be dropped from his/her name.
(Footnote: Rita is a Tarptent Rainbow. Susie is a TN Voyager Superlite. Vera is a TN Voyager. Connie is a TN Laser Competition. Colin was a WildAx Constellation. Bertie is a Hymer B444.)
Why not let Eric(a) take that decision? As you so rightly point out, Eric(a) will soon be transitioning and may well self-identify as gender and/or brake fluid. Thrilling times!
ReplyDeleteFor the moment we seem to have settled on her being female, but who knows whether that gender will turn out to be as fluid as the stuff that makes her brakes work?!
DeleteHeather is the same as Erica but I prefer the latter. I think dainty campervan should be female.
ReplyDeleteWe seem to be calling her Erica and referring to 'her'. Whilst it's not clear in speaking her name whether the brackets are still around the 'a', I see that the last couple of blog posts have omitted those brackets. Maybe the decision has thus been subconsciously made.
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